180-427: The Blue Lotus (French: Le Lotus bleu ) is the fifth volume of The Adventures of Tintin , the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé . Commissioned by the conservative Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle for its children's supplement Le Petit Vingtième , it was serialised weekly from August 1934 to October 1935 before being published in a collected volume by Casterman in 1936. Continuing where
360-466: A big-game hunter , accidentally killing fifteen antelope as opposed to the one needed for the evening meal. However, concerns over the number of dead animals led Tintin ' s Scandinavian publishers to request changes. A page of Tintin killing a rhinoceros by drilling a hole in its back and inserting a stick of dynamite was deemed excessive; Hergé replaced the page with one in which the rhino accidentally discharges Tintin's rifle while he sleeps under
540-704: A "finely tuned" political commentator. He singled out the depiction of the Mukden Incident for particular praise, thinking it "a marvellous example of political satire". Philippe Goddin thought that this depiction of the build-up to invasion was "brilliantly" done, also comparing it to the scene of ethnic cleansing in Tintin in America . Literary critic Tom McCarthy thought that The Blue Lotus showed evidence of Hergé's "left-wing counter-tendency" that rejected his earlier right-wing worldview. He believed that this
720-512: A 24th unfinished album was released, the studios were disbanded, and the assets were transferred to the Hergé Foundation . Tintin is a young Belgian reporter and adventurer who becomes involved in dangerous cases in which he takes heroic action to save the day. The Adventures may feature Tintin hard at work in his investigative journalism, but seldom is he seen actually turning in a story. Readers and critics have described Tintin as
900-532: A Chinese perspective. Building on this information, Hergé's depiction of the Japanese invasion was largely accurate, although it served as an outright attack on Japanese imperialism. Hergé depicted fictionalised versions of both the real-life Mukden Incident , although he shifted its location nearer to Shanghai, and Japan's walking out of the League of Nations . However, The Blue Lotus contained no mention of one of
1080-583: A French-language collected volume with Cigars of the Pharaoh and The Broken Ear , the second part of the Archives Hergé collection. In 1985, Casterman published a facsimile version of the original. Meanwhile, Methuen , the British publisher of The Adventures of Tintin , felt that the story was dated, and only published The Blue Lotus in 1983, the year of Hergé's death. The translation into English
1260-672: A Japanese protest after 323 uncounted votes were discovered. As a result, the election was declared invalid and a new poll held on April 20–21, 1936, at which the Japanese nominated only two candidates. In the case of the Chinese members, in 1926 the Ratepayers' Meeting adopted a resolution approving the addition of three Chinese members to the council and they took their seats for the first time in April, 1928; while in May, 1930, their number
1440-612: A branch of the Western Publishing Company in the 1950s. The albums were translated from French into American English with some artwork panels blanked except for the speech balloons. This was done to remove content considered to be inappropriate for children, such as drunkenness and free mixing of races. The albums were not popular and only six were published in mixed order. The edited albums later had their blanked areas redrawn by Hergé to be more acceptable, and they currently appear this way in published editions around
1620-604: A classic Franco-Belgian strip". Syldavia in particular is described in considerable detail, Hergé creating a history, customs, and a language, which is actually a Slavic-looking transcript of Marols , a working-class Brussels dialect. He set the country in the Balkans , and it is, by his own admission, modelled after Albania . The country finds itself threatened by neighbouring Borduria, with an attempted annexation appearing in King Ottokar's Sceptre . This situation parallels
1800-610: A criminal case was initiated, although the matter was transferred to a civil court. Belgium's Centre for Equal Opportunities warned against "over-reaction and hyper political correctness ". Shanghai International Settlement The Shanghai International Settlement ( Chinese : 上海公共租界 ) originated from the 1863 merger of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai , in which British and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdiction under
1980-479: A cure for Rajaijah, while Wang adopts Chang as his son. Tintin and Snowy return home to Europe. Georges Remi—best known under the pen name Hergé —was employed as editor and illustrator of Le Petit Vingtième (" The Little Twentieth "), a children's supplement to Le Vingtième Siècle (" The Twentieth Century "), a staunchly Roman Catholic, conservative Belgian newspaper based in Hergé's native Brussels which
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#17328011578742160-576: A deep impact". Hergé, talking to Numa Sadoul . Learning of Hergé's intention to set the next Adventure in China, Abbot Léon Gosset, a Roman Catholic chaplain to the Chinese students at the Catholic University of Leuven , contacted Hergé and asked him to be cautious in his depiction of the country. His students read Le Petit Vingtième and he thought it would be counterproductive if Hergé continued to propagate negative stereotypes about
2340-552: A defending argument for the maintenance of the orchestra, and Japan, whose Viscount Konoye encouraged the Japanese people to support the orchestra and the culture that it brought to the East. In addition to the string orchestra, opera and choral music were favored forms of entertainment. Often, the orchestra would accompany singers as a part of orchestra concerts, in addition to the symphonies and other pieces that they played, or just in choral or opera concerts. The French Concession
2520-566: A judge. In 1927, a Provisional Court was established with a sole Chinese judge presiding. In 1930, Chinese Special Courts were established which had jurisdiction over all non-treaty power individuals and companies in the Settlement. Two countries, Britain and the United States, established formal court systems in China to try cases. The British Supreme Court for China and Japan was established in 1865 and located in its own building in
2700-534: A lesson in mathematics. Hergé later admitted the flaws in the original story, excusing it saying: "I portrayed these Africans according to ... this purely paternalistic spirit of the time". Sue Buswell, who was the editor of Tintin at Methuen, summarised the perceived problems with the book in 1988 as "all to do with rubbery lips and heaps of dead animals", although Thompson noted her quote may have been "taken out of context". Drawing on André Maurois ' Les Silences du colonel Bramble , Hergé presents Tintin as
2880-474: A mission" to his adventure. Commenting on the character Chang, they thought that he was an "endearing personality" despite having little relevance to the plot, also believing that Dawson and Gibbons were the most loathsome characters in the Adventure . They compared the scene in which the Japanese invaded China with that in Tintin in America where the U.S. army force Native Americans off their land, and praised
3060-631: A mixture of coins, including Chinese copper cash coins and Mexican dollars. Paper money was first issued by European and North American colonial banks (one British colonial bank known as the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China at one time issued banknotes in Shanghai that were denominated in Mexican dollars). Yen was used in the Japanese district of "Little Tokyo". European and North American currencies did not officially circulate in
3240-474: A practical monopoly over the city's businesses by the mid-1880s. It bought up all the local gas-suppliers, electricity producers and water-companies, then—during the 20th-century—took control over all non-private rickshaws and the Settlement tramways. It also regulated opium sales and prostitution until their banning in 1918 and 1920 respectively. Until the late-1920s, therefore, the SMC and its subsidiaries, including
3420-571: A result, the colourful supporting cast was developed during this period. Thomson and Thompson ( Dupont et Dupond in Hergé's original version) are two incompetent detectives who look like identical twins, their only discernible difference being the shape of their moustaches. First introduced in Cigars of the Pharaoh , they provide much of the comic relief throughout the series, being afflicted with chronic spoonerisms . They are extremely clumsy, thoroughly incompetent, and usually bent on arresting
3600-476: A sense of responsibility to my readers". Hergé's use of research and photographic reference allowed him to build a realised universe for Tintin, going so far as to create fictionalised countries, dressing them with specific political cultures. These were heavily informed by the cultures evident in Hergé's lifetime. Pierre Skilling has asserted that Hergé saw monarchy as "the legitimate form of government", noting that democratic "values seem underrepresented in [such]
3780-467: A set of traditional Chinese brushes and explaining to him the art of painting a tree and Chinese calligraphy, alongside explaining the tenets of Taoist philosophy. Both his artistic and philosophical training under Zhang would have a profound effect on Hergé. Hergé had also established contact with Father Édouard Neut, hosteller at the St. Andrew's Abbey near Bruges . Neut had a special interest in China, and
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#17328011578743960-470: A similar expansion of the French concession in 1914) was turned down by the Chinese government due to anti-imperialist sentiments. Britain, pre-occupied with World War I , did not press the issue and the extra-settlement roads area retained the "quasi-concession" status until the demise of the concession. Parts of the northern extra-settlement roads area was allocated to Japan for defence purposes in 1927, which
4140-578: A strip about a Boy Scout patrol leader titled Les Aventures de Totor C.P. des Hannetons ( The Adventures of Totor, Scout Leader of the Cockchafers ) for the Scouting newspaper Le Boy Scout Belge ( The Belgian Boy Scout ). Totor was a strong influence on Tintin , with Hergé describing the latter as being like Totor's younger brother. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier stated that graphically, Totor and Tintin were "virtually identical" except for
4320-717: A strong protagonist. Tintin's iconic representation enhances this aspect, with Scott McCloud noting that it "allows readers to mask themselves in a character and safely enter a sensually stimulating world". Snowy ( Milou in Hergé's original version), a white Wire Fox Terrier dog, is Tintin's loyal companion. Like Captain Haddock, Snowy is fond of Loch Lomond brand Scotch whisky , and his occasional bouts of drinking tend to get him into unintentional trouble, as does his only fear: arachnids. Captain Archibald Haddock ( Capitaine Haddock in Hergé's original version)
4500-625: A tree. In 2007, the UK's Commission for Racial Equality called for the book to be pulled from shelves after a complaint, stating: "It beggars belief that in this day and age Borders would think it acceptable to sell and display Tintin in the Congo." In August 2007, a Congolese student filed a complaint in Brussels that the book was an insult to the Congolese people. Public prosecutors investigated, and
4680-411: A well-rounded yet open-ended, intelligent, and creative character, noting that his lack of backstory and neutral personality permits a reflection of the evil, folly, and foolhardiness which surrounds him. The character never compromises his Boy Scout ideals, which represent Hergé's own, and his status allows the reader to assume his position within the story, rather than merely following the adventures of
4860-665: A work given to him by Wallez and authored by Joseph Douillet , the former Belgian consul in Russia, that is highly critical of the Soviet regime, although Hergé contextualised this by noting that in Belgium, at the time a devout Catholic nation, "anything Bolshevik was atheist ". In the story, Bolshevik leaders are motivated by personal greed and a desire to deceive the world. Tintin discovers, buried, "the hideout where Lenin , Trotsky , and Stalin have collected together wealth stolen from
5040-430: A work whose idioms and jokes would be meritorious in their own right. Despite the free hand Hergé afforded the two, they worked closely with the original text, asking for regular assistance to understand Hergé's intentions. The British translations were also Anglicised to appeal to British customs and values. Milou, for example, was renamed Snowy at the translators' discretion. Captain Haddock's Le château de Moulinsart
5220-460: A youth supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle ( The Twentieth Century ). The success of the series led to serialised strips published in Belgium's leading newspaper Le Soir ( The Evening ) and spun into a successful Tintin magazine . In 1950, Hergé created Studios Hergé , which produced the canonical versions of ten Tintin albums. Following Hergé's death in 1983,
5400-569: Is a Merchant Marine sea captain and Tintin's best friend. Introduced in The Crab with the Golden Claws , Haddock is initially depicted as a weak and alcoholic character, but later evolves to become genuinely heroic and even a socialite after he finds a treasure from his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock ( Chevalier François de Hadoque ). The Captain's coarse humanity and sarcasm act as a counterpoint to Tintin's often-implausible heroism; he
5580-422: Is always quick with a dry comment whenever the boy reporter seems too idealistic. The hot-tempered Haddock uses a range of colourful insults and curses to express his feelings, such as "billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles!" ( Mille milliards de mille sabords! ) or "ten thousand thundering typhoons!" Professor Cuthbert Calculus ( Professeur Tryphon Tournesol in Hergé's original version; tournesol
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5760-399: Is an opera singer of whom Haddock is terrified. She was first introduced in King Ottokar's Sceptre and seems to appear wherever the protagonists travel, along with her maid Irma and pianist Igor Wagner . Although amiable and strong-willed, she is also comically foolish, whimsical, absent-minded, talkative, and seemingly unaware that her voice is shrill and appallingly loud. Her speciality
5940-621: Is especially noticeable in the seascapes, which are reminiscent of works by Hokusai and Hiroshige . Hergé also declared Mark Twain an influence, although this admiration may have led him astray when depicting Incas as having no knowledge of an upcoming solar eclipse in Prisoners of the Sun , an error T. F. Mills attributed to an attempt to portray "Incas in awe of a latter-day ' Connecticut Yankee '". Tintin first appeared in English in
6120-422: Is frequently replaced by malapropisms such as " Paddock ", " Stopcock ", or " Hopscotch ", while Nestor, Haddock's butler, is confused with "Chestor" and "Hector". Her own name means "white and chaste flower": a meaning to which Professor Calculus once refers when he breeds a white rose and names it for the singer. She was based upon opera divas in general (according to Hergé's perception), Hergé's Aunt Ninie (who
6300-569: Is not a story for children ... It's just a problem for Asia!" The story was nevertheless a commercial success, and Le Petit Vingtième organised a celebration to commemorate the return of Tintin from the Far East, sponsored by the L'Innovation and Bon Marché department stores. Taking place at the Cirque Royal , it was attended by 3000 fans of the series, many of whom were Scouts, and involved an actor portraying Tintin who accompanied Hergé,
6480-714: Is the French word for 'sunflower') is an absent-minded and partially deaf physicist and a regular character alongside Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock. He was introduced in Red Rackham's Treasure , and based partially on Auguste Piccard , a Swiss physicist. "Everybody wants to be Tintin: generation after generation. In a world of Rastapopouloses , Tricklers and Carreidases —or, more prosaically, Jolyon Waggs and Bolt-the-builders —Tintin represents an unattainable ideal of goodness, cleanness, authenticity". —Literary critic Tom McCarthy , 2006 Hergé's supporting characters have been cited as far more developed than
6660-459: Is the Jewel Song ( Ah! Je ris de me voir si belle en ce miroir / Ah! My beauty past compare, these jewels bright I wear ) from Gounod 's opera Faust , which she sings at the least provocation. She is often maternal toward Haddock, of whose dislike she remains ignorant. She often confuses words, especially names, with other words that rhyme with them or of which they remind her; "Haddock"
6840-529: The Adventures of Tintin from a more "adult" perspective as Les Métamorphoses de Tintin , published in English as The Metamorphoses of Tintin, or Tintin for Adults in 2010. In reviewing Apostolidès' book, Nathan Perl-Rosenthal of The New Republic thought that it was "not for the faint of heart: it is densely-packed with close textual analysis and laden with psychological jargon". Following Apostolidès's work, French psychoanalyst Serge Tisseron examined
7020-473: The Allies entered Brussels and Hergé's German employers fled. Le Soir was shut down and The Adventures of Tintin was put on hold. Then in 1946, Hergé accepted an invitation from Belgian comic publisher Raymond Leblanc and his new publishing company Le Lombard to continue The Adventures of Tintin in the new Le journal de Tintin ( Tintin magazine). Hergé quickly learned that he no longer had
7200-611: The Art Deco designer, also affected early Tintin adventures: "His influence can be detected at the beginning of the Soviets , where my drawings are designed along a decorative line, like an 'S'". Hergé also readily adopted the image of round noses from George McManus , feeling they were "so much fun that I used them, without scruples!" During the extensive research Hergé carried out for The Blue Lotus , he became influenced by Chinese and Japanese illustrative styles and woodcuts . This
7380-602: The British Consulate compound , and the United States Court for China was established in the US Consulate in 1906. Both courts were occupied by the Japanese on 8 December 1941 and effectively ceased to function from that date. The currency situation in China was very complicated in the 19th century, as there was no unified monetary system. Different parts of China operated different systems, and
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7560-567: The Canton System . The British also established a base on Hong Kong . American and French involvement followed closely on the heels of the British and their enclaves were established north and south, respectively, of the British area. Unlike the colonies of Hong Kong and Macau , where the United Kingdom and Portugal enjoyed full sovereignty in perpetuity, the foreign concessions in China remained under Chinese sovereignty. In 1854,
7740-533: The First World War , Japan overtook Britain as the country with the largest number of foreign residents in Shanghai. In 1914, Japan sided with Britain and France in the war and conquered all German possessions in China. By the beginning of the 1930s, Japan was swiftly becoming the most powerful national group in Shanghai and accounted for some 80% of all extraterritorial foreigners in China. Much of Hongkew , which had become an unofficial Japanese settlement,
7920-863: The General Post Office Building that is today the Shanghai Post Museum. International merchants brought with them amateur musical talent that manifested in the creation of the Shanghai Philharmonic Society in 1868. From here, the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra was officially formed in 1879. In 1938, the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra faced disbandment as the ratepayers in the annual Municipal Council meeting considered reallocating budgets away from
8100-474: The Imperial Japanese Army entered and occupied the British and American controlled parts of the city in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor . The British and American troops, taken by surprise, surrendered without a shot, with the exception of the only British riverboat in Shanghai, HMS Peterel , which refused to surrender; six of the 18 British crew on board at the time were killed when
8280-626: The Italian conquest of Albania , and that of Czechoslovakia and Austria by expansionist Nazi Germany prior to World War II. Hergé's use of research would include months of preparation for Tintin's voyage to the Moon in the two-part storyline spread across Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon . His research for the storyline was noted in New Scientist : "The considerable research undertaken by Hergé enabled him to come very close to
8460-510: The Mukden Incident ). The Japanese government uses this as an excuse to invade Northern China , taking Shanghai under its control. Tintin is captured by Mitsuhirato, who plans to poison him with Rajaijah. However, one of Wang's agents swaps out the poison for coloured water, so when Tintin is "poisoned", he is able to feign madness long enough to be untied and let go so he is able to escape from Mitsuhirato. Mitsuhirato later discovers
8640-596: The Paris Gare du Nord railway station, following which he organised the publication of the story in book form. The story's popularity led to an increase in sales, so Wallez granted Hergé two assistants. At Wallez's direction, in June he began serialisation of the second story, Tintin in the Congo , designed to encourage colonial sentiment towards the Belgian Congo . Authored in a paternalistic style that depicted
8820-579: The Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek . However, because Shanghai was under Japanese control, this was unenforceable. In reply, in July 1943, the Japanese retroceded the SMC to the City Government of Shanghai, which was then in the hands of the pro-Japanese Wang Jingwei Government . After the war and the liberation of the city from the Japanese, a Liquidation Commission fitfully met to discuss
9000-821: The Shanghai Ghetto in Hongkew. On 21 August 1941 the Japanese government closed Hongkew to Jewish immigration. In February 1943, the International Settlement was de jure returned to the Chinese as part of the British–Chinese Treaty for the Relinquishment of Extra-Territorial Rights in China and American–Chinese Treaty for Relinquishment of Extraterritorial Rights in China with the Nationalist Government of
9180-651: The Shanghai Municipal Police . In 1932 there were 1,040,780 Chinese living within the International Settlement, with another 400,000 fleeing into the area after the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. For the next five years, the International Settlement and the French Concession were surrounded by Japanese occupiers and Chinese revolutionaries, with conflict often spilling into the Settlement's borders. In 1941,
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#17328011578749360-527: The Spanish pieces of eight that had been coming from Mexico for a few hundred years on Manila galleons were current along the China coast. Until the 1840s, these silver dollar coins were Spanish coins minted mainly in Mexico City ; but from the 1840s, these gave way to Mexican republican dollars . In Shanghai, this complexity represented a microcosm of the complicated economy existing elsewhere along
9540-903: The United Kingdom . He also sent Tintin to fictional countries of his own devising, such as the Latin American republic of San Theodoros , the East European kingdom of Syldavia , or the fascist state of Borduria —whose leader's name, Müsstler, was a portmanteau of the names of the Nazi German Führer Adolf Hitler and the Italian Fascist Prime Minister Benito Mussolini . In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Belgium as World War II spread further across Europe. Although Hergé briefly fled to France and
9720-619: The United States Post Office Department maintained a United States Postal Agency at the Shanghai consulate through which Americans could use the US Post Office to send mail to and from the US mainland and US territories. Starting in 1919 the 16 current regular US stamps were overprinted for use in Shanghai with the city's name, "China", and amounts double their printed face values. In 1922 texts for two of
9900-423: The ideograms that appeared as street signs and advertisements throughout the story. (The accuracy of the characters varies considerably.) Among these ideograms were those of a political nature, proclaiming slogans such as "Down with Imperialism", "Abolish unfair treaties", and "Down with Japanese merchandise". Zhang also sketched out a number of images for Hergé, such as the outline of Wang's house. Zhang's signature
10080-567: The police , power station, and public works, were British dominated (though not controlled, since Britain itself had no authority over the council). Some of the Settlement's actions during this period, such as the May 30th Movement , in which Chinese demonstrators were shot by members of the Shanghai Municipal Police (leading to anti-Western protests), did embarrass and threaten the British Empire 's position in China. No Chinese residing in
10260-411: The "poison of madness". Tintin and his fox terrier Snowy travel to Shanghai to meet Mitsuhirato, who warns them that the Maharajah is in danger and that they should return to India. Surviving several attempts on his life by mysterious assailants, Tintin attempts to leave for India by boat, but is kidnapped and brought back to China. His abductors reveal themselves as members of a secret society known as
10440-436: The 19th century, Shanghai Russians also arrived, with Russia's construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway and acquisition of Harbin and Port Arthur . On 11 July 1854 a committee of Western businessmen met and held the first annual meeting of the Shanghai Municipal Council ( SMC , formally the Council for the Foreign Settlement North of the Yang-king-pang ), ignoring protests of consular officials, and laid down
10620-414: The 5,584 acres the International Settlement was to cover by 1899 – was slightly expanded westward and northward. Following the British example, the French consul Charles de Montigny and the Daotai Lin’gui agreed in 1849 that a French settlement be established on a strip of land between the Chinese city and the British settlement. The American consul was somewhat offended by the fact that the British and
10800-581: The Arab emir, and Abdullah his mischievous son, Dr. Müller the evil German psychiatrist, Oliveira da Figueira the friendly Portuguese salesman, Cutts the butcher whose phone number is repeatedly confused with Haddock's, and Allan the henchman of Rastapopoulos and formerly Haddock's first mate. The settings within Tintin have also added depth to the strips. Hergé mixes real and fictional lands into his stories. In King Ottokar's Sceptre (revisited once more in The Calculus Affair ) Hergé creates two fictional countries, Syldavia and Borduria , and invites
10980-417: The Baltic states, or Finland. Chinese citizens and citizens of non-treaty powers were subject to Chinese law. Inside the Settlement, cases against them would be brought to the Mixed Court , a court established in the Settlement in the 1864 which existed until 1926. In cases involving foreigners, a foreign assessor , usually a consular officer, would sit with the Chinese magistrate and in many cases acted like
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#173280115787411160-439: The British countryside would be acceptable to British readers. The resulting 1966 album is the dramatically updated and redrawn version most commonly available today. As of the early 21st century, Egmont publishes Tintin books in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. The Tintin books have had relatively limited popularity in the United States. The works were first adapted for the American English market by Golden Books ,
11340-456: The China coast. The Chinese reckoned in weights of silver, which did not necessarily correspond to circulating coins. One important unit was a tael , a measurement of weight with several different definitions. These included customs taels (for foreign trade) and cotton taels (for cotton trade), among others. Shanghai had its own tael, which was very similar in weight to the customs tael and therefore popular for international business. China also had
11520-429: The Chinese Post Office to the Universal Postal Union to the Shanghai Post Office. Some other foreign countries refused to fall under this new postal service's remit, however; for many years, Japan notably sent almost all its mail to Shanghai in diplomatic bags , which could not be opened by postal staff. The General Shanghai Post Office was first located on Beijing Road and moved to the location on Sichuan North Road of
11700-615: The Chinese people. Hergé was sensitive to Gosset's ideas, and Gosset proceeded to put him in touch with two of his Chinese students, Arnold Chiao Ch'eng-Chih and his wife Susan Lin. He also gave him the address of a Chinese student a year Hergé's junior, Zhang Chongren . The pair first met on 1 May 1934, soon becoming close friends and spending every Sunday afternoon with each other for over a year. Zhang later commented that he and Hergé became akin to "two brothers". A student of painting and sculpture at Brussels' Royal Museums of Fine Arts , Zhang taught Hergé about Chinese artistic styles, giving him
11880-425: The Chinese, and made Tintin give a speech to Chang explaining western misunderstandings of the Chinese. He took "a radical view" by expressing a criticism of Western activity in China's International Settlement, depicting it as extremely corrupt and only interested in its own commercial interests. He gained much of his information on such issues from Zhang, who informed him of the political events occurring in China from
12060-414: The Congo ), and to set his third adventure in the United States to use the story as a denunciation of American capitalism ( Tintin in America ). On 24 November 1932, Le Petit Vingtième published a fictional interview with Tintin in which the reporter announced that he would travel to China via Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, and Indochina. This plotline resulted in Tintin in the Orient , the first part of which
12240-430: The Congolese as childlike idiots, in later decades it was accused of racism, but at the time was uncontroversial and popular, and further publicity stunts were held to increase sales. For the third adventure, Tintin in America , serialised from September 1931 to October 1932, Hergé finally got to deal with a scenario of his own choice, and used the work to push an anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist agenda in keeping with
12420-418: The End of the World ). "It was at the time of The Blue Lotus that I discovered a new world. For me up to then, China was peopled by a vague, slit-eyed people who were very cruel, who would eat swallows' nests , wear pig-tails and throw children into rivers ... I was influenced by the pictures and stories of the Boxer Uprising , where the accent was always on the cruelty of the yellow people, and this made
12600-436: The European powers as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance during the infamous fifty-five-day siege of the foreign embassy compound in Peking . Japan entered the 20th century as a rising world power, and with its unequal treaties with the European powers now abrogated, it actually joined in, obtaining an unequal treaty with China granting extraterritorial rights under the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed in 1895. In 1915, during
12780-426: The Far East to The Blue Lotus , commenting of this new title: "It is short, it sounds Chinese and it is mysterious". At Casterman's prompting, he also inserted a number of coloured plates throughout the work, and devised a new design for the front cover. The book was finally published in October 1936. Hergé was pleased with the product, commenting: "I was just bowled over! It is the height of luxury and my first thought
12960-657: The Far East ). It began serialisation in France in Cœurs Vaillants from 29 December 1935, and later in the Swiss magazine L'Écho Illustré . Alongside protagonists Tintin and Snowy, Hergé also included the detectives Thomson and Thompson in the story, who had been introduced in the previous story. He also alluded to the movie that Tintin and Snowy had interrupted the filming of in Cigars , Rastapopoulos' The Sheik's House , by having
13140-511: The French had secured the best plots of land in the area, and after lengthy deliberations, the Americans – who with the Treaty of Wanghia of 1844 had gained the same rights as those enjoyed by the British in the five treaty ports – established their own settlement northeast of Shanghai. In 1852 the total population of the settlements was about 500, including 265 foreigners. Towards the end of
13320-570: The Golden Claws was the first to be published with Hyslop's lettering. Hyslop was given versions of Hergé's artwork with blank panels. Hyslop would write his English script on a clear cellophane -like material, aiming to fit within the original speech bubble. Occasionally the size of the bubbles would need to be adjusted if the translated text would not fit. In the early 2000s, Tintin's English publishers Egmont discontinued publishing books featuring Hyslop's handwritten lettering, instead publishing books with text created with digital fonts. This change
13500-743: The Hergé Foundation has presented such criticism as naïveté and scholars of Hergé such as Harry Thompson have said that "Hergé did what he was told by the Abbé Wallez", Hergé himself felt that his background made it impossible to avoid prejudice, stating: "I was fed the prejudices of the bourgeois society that surrounded me". In Tintin in the Land of the Soviets , the Bolsheviks were presented as villains. Hergé drew on Moscow Unveiled ,
13680-677: The Hergé Foundation, Hergé's widow Fanny Rodwell said: "We never thought that this story of friendship would have a resonance more than 40 years later". The study of Tintin, sometimes referred to as "Tintinology", has become the life work of some literary critics in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Belgian author Philippe Goddin has written Hergé et Tintin reporters: Du Petit Vingtième au Journal Tintin (1986, later republished in English as Hergé and Tintin Reporters: From "Le Petit Vingtième" to "Tintin" Magazine in 1987) and Hergé et les Bigotudos (1993) amongst other books on
13860-494: The International Settlement era can still be seen today along the Bund and in many locations around the city. The International Settlement did not have a unified legal system. The Municipal Council issued Land Regulations and regulations under this, that were binding on all people in the settlement. Other than this, citizens and subjects of powers that had treaties with China that provided for extraterritorial rights were subject to
14040-399: The International Settlement were permitted to join the council until 1928. Amongst the many members who served on the council, its chairman during the 1920s, Stirling Fessenden , is possibly the most notable. An American, he served as the settlement's main administrator during Shanghai's most turbulent era, and was considered more "British" than the council's British members. He oversaw many of
14220-452: The International Settlement's Land Regulations stated unequivocally that "the land encompassed in the territory remains Chinese territory, subject to China's sovereign rights." As expressed by legal experts, "the self-governing International Settlement possesses no more power than the mere delegation of purely local and municipal powers and functions. Control of police, sanitation, roads, and other problems of local administration are granted to
14400-401: The International Settlement. Until the year 1873, however, US dollar coins would have reasonably corresponded in size, shape and value to Mexican dollars. Between 1873 and 1900, all silver standard dollars had depreciated to about 50% of the value of the gold standard dollars of the United States and Canada, leading to a rising economic depression. The Chinese themselves officially adopted
14580-567: The Japanese (whose troops eventually outnumbered the other countries' many times over). From the 1860s, the Municipal Council began building roads beyond the concession boundaries, ostensibly to connect the concession with other properties or facilities which required the protection of Britain and other treaty powers during the unrest of the Taiping Rebellion. The Municipal Council obtained limited administrative powers over
14760-637: The Japanese launched an abortive political bid to take over the SMC: during a mass meeting of ratepayers at the Settlement Race Grounds, a Japanese official leaped up and shot William Keswick , then chairman of the council. While Keswick was only wounded, a near riot broke out. Britain evacuated its garrisons from mainland Chinese cities, particularly Shanghai, in August 1940. Anglo-American influence effectively ended after 8 December 1941, when
14940-406: The Japanese used as a base for military operations during the 1932 January 28th Incident and the 1937 Battle of Shanghai . After that battle, Japan took full control over the northern extra-settlement roads area and expelled International Settlement police. The neutrality of the western extra-settlement roads area survived in some form until the withdrawal of British troops in 1940. Article 28 of
15120-418: The Japanese, who sentence him to death before he is rescued by Wang. Travelling to Hukow to search for Fang, Tintin comes across a flood that has caused extensive damage, and rescues a young Chinese orphan Chang Chong-Chen from drowning. Chang accompanies Tintin to Hukow, where one of Mitsuhirato's spies tries to kill Tintin but fails; they realise that it was a trap and that Fang was not there. Meanwhile,
15300-702: The Land Regulations which established the principles of self-government. The aims of this first Council were simply to assist in the formation of roads, refuse collection, and taxation across the disparate Concessions. In 1863 the American concession—land fronting the Huangpu River to the north-east of Soochow Creek ( Suzhou Creek )—officially joined the British Settlement (stretching from Yang-ching-pang Creek to Suzhou Creek) to become
15480-426: The Municipal Council simply because that body happens to be the one best equipped to deal with these matters in an area where the large majority of foreigners dwell. But the Municipal Council is in no sense a political body. Its powers, being delegated and hence limited, are subject to strict construction. What foreigners acquire is simply the delegated power of municipal administration, while the reserve powers remain in
15660-545: The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Peru, Mexico, and Switzerland. Germany and Austria-Hungary lost their treaty rights after WWI, and Russia gave up her rights as a matter of political expediency. Belgium was declared by China to have lost her rights in 1927. Furthermore, the Chinese government adamantly refused to grant treaty power status to any of the new nations born in the wake of WWI, such as Austria and Hungary (formerly Austria-Hungary), Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia,
15840-532: The Scout uniform, also noting many similarities between their respective adventures, particularly in the illustration style, the fast pace of the story, and the use of humour. He was fascinated by new techniques in the medium such as the systematic use of speech bubbles—found in such American comics as George McManus ' Bringing up Father , George Herriman 's Krazy Kat , and Rudolph Dirks 's Katzenjammer Kids , copies of which had been sent to him from Mexico by
16020-490: The Settlement was reflected in the flag and seal of the Municipal Council, which featured the flags of several countries. The international settlement came to an abrupt end in December 1941 when Japanese troops stormed in immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . In early 1943, new treaties signed formally ended the extraterritorial privileges of Americans and Britons, although its terms were not met until
16200-519: The Shanghai International Settlement. The French concession remained independent and the Chinese retained control over the original walled city and the area surrounding the foreign enclaves. This would later result in sometimes absurd administrative outcomes, such as needing three drivers' licenses to travel through the complete city. By the late-1860s Shanghai's official governing body had been practically transferred from
16380-587: The Sino-Belgian Friendship Association. The diplomats threatened to take their complaint to the Permanent Court of International Justice at The Hague . In learning of this, Zhang congratulated Hergé, stating that it would only further expose the actions of Japan in China to further international scrutiny and would make Hergé "world-famous". Hergé's strip also came under criticism from a Belgian general, who commented: "This
16560-642: The Sons of the Dragon, who, like the Maharaja, are devoted to combating the opium trade . Their leader, Wang Chen-Yee , explains to Tintin that Mitsuhirato is both a Japanese spy and an opium smuggler, and enlists Tintin in their fight to stop him. Tintin agrees, and spies on Mitsuhirato at the Blue Lotus opium den . Following him, Tintin witnesses Mitsuhirato blowing up a Chinese railway (an action loosely based on
16740-525: The Soviet Union or the Belgian Congo. At the time most Belgians held to a negative stereotype of China, viewing it as "a distant continent of a nation, barbaric, overpopulated, and inscrutable", and Hergé had long believed this view. He had included Chinese characters in two previous Adventures , in both instances depicting them according to traditional European clichés. In Tintin in the Land of
16920-530: The Soviet Union, Belgian Congo, Peru, India, Egypt, Morocco, Indonesia, Iceland, Nepal, Tibet, and China. Other actual locales used were the Sahara Desert, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Moon. Hergé's extensive research began with The Blue Lotus ; Hergé said that "it was from that time that I undertook research and really interested myself in the people and countries to which I sent Tintin, out of
17100-464: The Soviets , he included two pigtailed Chinese men hired by the Bolsheviks to torture Tintin, while in Tintin in America he featured two Chinese hoodlums who plotted to eat Snowy. Hergé learned a bit about the country from Albert Londres ' book China Madness , based on Londres' experiences in the country. He was also influenced in his portrayal of China by the 1933 German film Flüchtlinge ( At
17280-603: The United Kingdom treaty). The only department not chaired by a Briton was the Municipal Orchestra, which was controlled by an Italian . The Settlement maintained its own fire-service, police force (the Shanghai Municipal Police ), and even possessed its own military reserve in the Shanghai Volunteer Corps ( 萬國商團 ). Following some disturbances at the British concession in Hankow in 1927 ,
17460-418: The areas adjacent to these "extra-settlement roads", making the area a "quasi-concession". The expansion of the International Settlement in 1899 took in most of the extra-settlement roads area, but from 1901 the Municipal Council began building further roads beyond the new boundary with a view to expanding the concession to cover those areas as well. However, a request to further expand the concession (inspired by
17640-407: The best qualities of the earlier works. Thinking it "much more serious" than Tintin's prior Adventures , he nevertheless thought it "no less enjoyable", being the first story to bring "emotion and tragedy" to the series. Farr thought that Hergé's "total absorption" in his subject resulted in him gaining an "extraordinary feel" for it and allowed him to foresee future political events in China much like
17820-523: The central character, each imbued with strength of character and depth of personality, which has been compared with that of the characters of Charles Dickens . Hergé used the supporting characters to create a realistic world in which to set his protagonists' adventures. To further the realism and continuity, characters would recur throughout the series. The occupation of Belgium and the restrictions imposed upon Hergé forced him to focus on characterisation to avoid depicting troublesome political situations. As
18000-520: The central historical events of the period, the Long March of communist Mao Zedong . Further devoting himself to greater accuracy, Hergé also made increasing use of photographs to draw from, such as of Chinese clothing, street scenes, and landscape. Hergé's newfound emphasis on accuracy and documentation imbued the rest of the Adventures . While Hergé relied on nonsensical Arabic for the backgrounds in Cigars , for The Blue Lotus Zhang drew many of
18180-402: The character of Tintin and the sort of adventures that would befall him came to me, I believe, in five minutes, the moment I first made a sketch of the figure of this hero: that is to say, he had not haunted my youth nor even my dreams. Although it's possible that as a child I imagined myself in the role of a sort of Tintin". —Hergé, 15 November 1966. Georges Prosper Remi, best known under
18360-500: The character of Tintin. In March 2013, Steven Spielberg said that The Blue Lotus might be the basis for the third Tintin film in his film series that began with The Adventures of Tintin (2011). The Adventures of Tintin The Adventures of Tintin ( French : Les Aventures de Tintin ; [lez‿avɑ̃tyʁ də tɛ̃tɛ̃] ) is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under
18540-466: The characters watch the film during a cinema screening. Hergé actively satirised typical European opinions of China in The Blue Lotus . He had Thomson and Thompson dress in what they perceived as traditional Chinese costume, as Mandarins , only to stand out in stark contrast to the actual clothing worn in China. He also had Gibbons, one of the story's antagonists, express racist attitudes toward
18720-459: The complications arising from a mixture of Chinese and Spanish coinages, there was one overwhelming unifying factor binding all the systems in use: silver . The Chinese reckoned purely in terms of silver, and value was always compared against a weight of silver (hence, the reason large prices were given in tael). It was the strict adherence of the Chinese to silver that caused China and even the British colonies of Hong Kong and Weihaiwei to remain on
18900-493: The deception and convinces the Japanese military forces to put a warrant out for Tintin's arrest. Meanwhile, Tintin enters the Shanghai International Settlement in search for Professor Fang Hsi-ying, an expert on poisons who he hopes can develop a cure for Rajaijah, but discovers that he has been kidnapped. J.M. Dawson , the Settlement's corrupt Chief of Police, arrests Tintin and hands him over to
19080-606: The defences at Shanghai were augmented by a permanent battalion of the British Army , which was referred to as the Shanghai Defence Force (SDF or SHAF), and a contingent of US Marines . Other armed forces would arrive in Shanghai; the French Concession had a defensive force of Troupes de marine and Annamite suppletive troops from French Indochina , the Italians also introduced their own marines, as did
19260-549: The detectives Thomson and Thompson are employed by Dawson to arrest Tintin, but fail on multiple occasions. Returning to Shanghai, Tintin intends to confront Mitsuhirato, and allows himself to be captured by him. Being held prisoner at The Blue Lotus, he discovers that Mitsuhirato is in league with the film director Rastapopoulos , who reveals that he is the leader of the international opium smuggling gang that Tintin has been pursuing in Egypt, Arabia, India, and now China. Rastapopoulos
19440-679: The differences between Chinese and Japanese cultures. At the time, Neut was working as the assistant of Lu Zhengxiang , a former prime minister of China who had become a monk at St. Andrew's Abbey. Mainstream Western press was broadly sympathetic to the Japanese cause, viewing them as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, a view that Hergé was to eschew. The comic strip began serialisation in Le Petit Vingtième on 9 August 1934 as Les Aventures De Tintin Reporter En Extrême-Orient ( The Adventures of Tintin, Reporter in
19620-456: The dollar unit as their national currency in 1889, and the first Chinese dollar coins, known as yuan , contained an inscription which related their value to an already existing Chinese system of accounts. On the earliest Chinese dollar (yuan) coins it states the words 7 mace and 2 candareens . The mace and candareen were sub-divisions of the tael unit of weight. Banknotes tended to be issued in dollars, either worded as such or as yuan. Despite
19800-700: The early 21st century, Little, Brown and Company (owned by the Hachette Book Group USA ) continues to publish Tintin books in the United States. Moulinsart 's official Tintin app in Apple 's App Store , launched with the release of the digital version of Tintin in the Congo on 5 June 2015, features brand new English language translations by journalist, writer and Tintin expert Michael Farr . The English-language Adventures of Tintin books were originally published with handwritten lettering created by cartographer Neil Hyslop. 1958's The Crab with
19980-475: The executive director of ICT Europe Tsering Jampa noted was "for many ... their introduction to the awe-inspiring landscape and culture of Tibet". In 2001, the Hergé Foundation demanded the recall of the Chinese translation of the work, which had been released with the title Tintin in Chinese Tibet . The work was subsequently published with the correct translation of the title. Accepting on behalf of
20160-546: The final instalment of the series, Tintin and Alph-Art , was released posthumously. The series is set during a largely realistic 20th century. Its protagonist is Tintin , a courageous young Belgian reporter and adventurer aided by his faithful dog Snowy ( Milou in the original French edition). Other allies include the brash and cynical Captain Haddock , the intelligent but hearing-impaired Professor Calculus (French: Professeur Tournesol ), incompetent detectives Thomson and Thompson (French: Dupont et Dupond ), and
20340-628: The first British consul, Captain George Balfour , could not even find a house for the consulate. The British finally decided to locate themselves in the northern suburbs and asked the Daotai , Gong Muiju, to designate an area there as a segregated British area. This dovetailed with the Daotai's intentions since two violent incidents between local Chinese and foreigners had prompted him to take steps to limit contacts between Chinese and foreigners. This
20520-427: The independence he preferred; he was required to produce two coloured pages a week for Leblanc's magazine, a tall order. In 1950, Hergé began to poach the better members of the Tintin magazine staff to work in the large house on Avenue Louise that contained the fledgling Studios Hergé . Bob De Moor (who imitated Hergé's style and did half the work), Guy Dessicy (colourist), and Marcel DeHaye ( secretary ) were
20700-485: The individual concessions to the Shanghai Municipal Council (工部局, literally "Works Department", from the standard English local government title of 'Board of works'). The British Consul was the de jure authority in the Settlement, but he had no actual power unless the ratepayers (who voted for the council) agreed. Instead, he and the other consulates deferred to the council. The council had become
20880-416: The island of Taiwan . In the 1940s and 1950s, when Hergé's popularity had increased, he and his team at Studios Hergé redrew many of the original black-and-white Tintin adventures in colour using the ligne claire ("clear line") drawing style he had developed so that they visually fitted in with the new Tintin stories being created. The Studios reformatted and coloured The Blue Lotus in 1946. Little
21060-411: The laws of their own countries and civil and criminal complaints against them were required to be brought against them to their consular courts (courts overseen by consular officials) under the laws of their own countries. The number of treaty powers had climbed to a high of 19 by 1918 but was down to 14 by the 1930s: the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
21240-444: The linear illustrations of the story, although also opined that the original black-and-white version was better than its colour counterpart. Overall, they awarded The Blue Lotus four stars out of five. Harry Thompson noted that some people believed that Hergé's depiction of the Japanese as buck-toothed and inherently violent in The Blue Lotus was racist. He nevertheless thought that these accusations "stupidly" missed "the point of
21420-629: The local Shanghai tael unit. The Shanghai Post Office controlled all post within the Settlement, but post entering or leaving the treaty port was required to go through the Chinese Imperial Post Office. In 1922 the various foreign postal services, the Shanghai Post Office, and the Chinese Post Office were all brought together into a single Chinese Post Office, thus extending the 1914 membership of
21600-501: The major incidents of the decade, including the May 30th Movement and the White Terror that came with the Shanghai massacre of 1927 . By the early 1930s, the British and the Chinese each had five members on the council, the Japanese two and the Americans and others two. At the 1936 Council election, because of their increasing interests in the Settlement, the Japanese nominated three candidates. Only two were elected, which led to
21780-401: The newspaper's staff, a contortionist and a clown. In September 1935, Zhang returned to China at his family's request. Hergé meanwhile set about preparing the strip for publication in book form through Casterman . Proud of this Adventure , he encouraged them to increase the level of marketing and advertising for the work. At their advice, he renamed the story from The Adventures of Tintin in
21960-837: The nucleus. To this, Hergé added Jacques Martin (imitated Hergé's style), Roger Leloup (detailed, realistic drawings), Eugène Evany (later chief of the Studios), Michel Demaret ( letterer ), and Baudouin Van Den Branden (secretary). As Harry Thompson observed, the idea was to turn the process of creating The Adventures of Tintin into a "veritable production line, the artwork passing from person to person, everyone knowing their part, like an artistic orchestra with Hergé conducting". The studios produced eight new Tintin albums for Tintin magazine, and coloured and reformatted two old Tintin albums. Studios Hergé continued to release additional publications until Hergé's death in 1983. In 1986,
22140-433: The opera diva Bianca Castafiore . The series has been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire ("clear line") style. Its well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy, mysteries, political thrillers, and science fiction. The stories feature slapstick humour, offset by dashes of political or cultural commentary. "The idea for
22320-472: The orchestra, since it was "western and unnecessary." However, after much discussion, they decided to keep the orchestra, acknowledging that its educational value was much greater than the cost of keeping it up. The Shanghai Municipal Orchestra had the financial and verbal backing of many other larger countries, including Italy, who donated 50,000 lire to the orchestra, the France Council, who acted as
22500-490: The overprints were changed, thereby completing the Scott catalogue set of K1-18, "Offices in China". The British originally used British postage stamps overprinted with the local currency amount, but from 1868, the British changed to Hong Kong postage stamps already denominated in dollars . However, in the special case of Shanghai, in the year 1865 the International Settlement began to issue its own postage stamps, denominated in
22680-603: The paper's reporter Léon Degrelle . Although Hergé wanted to send Tintin to the United States, Wallez ordered him to set his adventure in the Soviet Union , acting as antisocialist propaganda for children. The result, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets , was serialised in Le Petit Vingtième from January 1929 to May 1930. Popular in Francophone Belgium, Wallez organised a publicity stunt at
22860-436: The paper's ultraconservative ideology. The Adventures of Tintin had been syndicated to a Catholic magazine named Cœurs Vaillants ( Brave Hearts ) since 1930, and Hergé was soon receiving syndication requests from Swiss and Portuguese newspapers, too. Hergé wrote a string of Adventures of Tintin , sending his character to real locations such as the Belgian Congo, United States, Egypt , India , Tibet , China , and
23040-717: The pen name Hergé , was employed as an illustrator at Le Vingtième Siècle ( The Twentieth Century ), a staunchly Roman Catholic, conservative Belgian newspaper based in Hergé's native Brussels . Run by the Abbé Norbert Wallez , the paper described itself as a "Catholic Newspaper for Doctrine and Information" and disseminated a fascist viewpoint. Wallez appointed Hergé editor of a new Thursday youth supplement, titled Le Petit Vingtième (" The Little Twentieth "). Propagating Wallez's sociopolitical views to its young readership, it contained explicitly pro-fascist and antisemitic sentiment. In addition to editing
23220-487: The pen name Hergé . The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. By 2007, a century after Hergé's birth in 1907, Tintin had been published in more than 70 languages with sales of more than 200 million copies, and had been adapted for radio, television, theatre, and film. The series first appeared in French on 10 January 1929 in Le Petit Vingtième ( The Little Twentieth ),
23400-578: The people". In 1999, the issue of Tintin's politics was the subject of a debate in the French parliament; this event prompted the British weekly newspaper The Economist to publish an editorial on the matter. Tintin in the Congo has been criticised as presenting the Africans as naïve and primitive. In the original work, Tintin is shown at a blackboard addressing a class of African children: "My dear friends. I am going to talk to you today about your fatherland: Belgium". Hergé redrew this in 1946 to show
23580-600: The period of Japanese occupation. The Japanese sent European and American citizens to be interned at the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center , a work camp on what was then the outskirts of Shanghai. Survivors of Lunghua were released in August 1945. Shanghai was notable for a long period as the only place in the world that unconditionally offered refuge for Jews escaping from the Nazis. These refugees often lived in squalid conditions in an area known as
23760-444: The plot of the previous story, Cigars of the Pharaoh , left off, the story tells of young Belgian reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy , who are invited to China in the middle of the 1931 Japanese invasion , where Tintin reveals the machinations of Japanese spies and uncovers a drug-smuggling ring. In creating The Blue Lotus , Hergé exhibited a newfound emphasis on accuracy and documentation in his portrayal of foreign societies. He
23940-589: The reader to tour them in text through the insertion of a travel brochure into the storyline. Other fictional lands include Khemed on the Arabian Peninsula and San Theodoros , São Rico , and Nuevo Rico in South America, as well as the kingdom of Gaipajama in India. Apart from these fictitious locations, Tintin also visits real places such as Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States,
24120-594: The recovery of Shanghai following Japan's 1945 surrender . The French later surrendered their privileges in a separate agreement in February 1946. It was one of two Chinese international settlements, along with Gulangyu International Settlement . The Treaty of Nanking and its supplementary treaty of 1843 – the first of the so-called unequal treaties - provided British merchants with the right to reside with their families and rent grounds and houses in five ports – Guanzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shanghai and Ningbo – but there
24300-636: The remaining details of the handover. By the end of 1945, most Westerners not actively involved in the Chinese Civil War (such as intelligence agents, soldiers, journalists, etc.) or in Shanghai's remaining foreign businesses, had left the city. With the defeat of the Kuomintang in 1949, the city was occupied by the Communist People's Liberation Army and came under the control of the mayor of Shanghai . The foreign architecture of
24480-438: The series contains the key to understanding literature itself. McCarthy considered the Adventures of Tintin to be "stupendously rich", containing "a mastery of plot and symbol, theme and sub-text" which, influenced by Tisseron's psychoanalytical readings of the work, he believed could be deciphered to reveal a series of recurring themes, ranging from bartering to implicit sexual intercourse that Hergé had featured throughout
24660-642: The series in his books Tintin et les Secrets de Famille ("Tintin and the Family Secrets"), which was published in 1990, and Tintin et le Secret d'Hergé ("Tintin and Hergé's Secret"), published in 1993. The first English-language work of literary criticism devoted to the series was Tintin and the Secret of Literature , written by the novelist Tom McCarthy and published in 2006. McCarthy compares Hergé's work with that of Aeschylus , Honoré de Balzac , Joseph Conrad , and Henry James and argues that
24840-597: The series itself became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition . In 1946, The Blue Lotus was partially re-drawn and coloured by the cartoonist and his team of assistants; during this process a number of minor plot elements were changed. The adventure introduces the recurring characters J.M. Dawson and Chang Chong-Chen . The story was adapted for a 1991 episode of the Ellipse / Nelvana animated series The Adventures of Tintin . Critical analysis of
25020-762: The series. In 1983, French author Benoît Peeters released Le Monde d'Hergé , subsequently published in English as Tintin and the World of Hergé in 1988. English reporter Michael Farr has written works such as Tintin, 60 Years of Adventure (1989), Tintin: The Complete Companion (2001), Tintin & Co. (2007) and The Adventures of Hergé (2007), while English television producer Harry Thompson authored Tintin: Hergé and his Creation (1991). Literary critics , primarily in French-speaking Europe, have also examined The Adventures of Tintin . In 1984, Jean-Marie Apostolidès published his study of
25200-688: The series. Reviewing the book in The Telegraph , Toby Clements argued that McCarthy's work, and literary criticism of Hergé's comic strips in general, cut "perilously close" to simply feeding "the appetite of those willing to cross the line between enthusiast and obsessive" in the Tintinological community. The earliest stories in The Adventures of Tintin have been criticised for animal cruelty; colonialism ; violence; and ethnocentric , caricatured portrayals of non-Europeans. While
25380-418: The settlement. The number of treaty powers had climbed to a high of 19 by 1918 but was down to 14 by the 1930s: the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Peru, Mexico, and Switzerland. Nonetheless, the SMC remained a predominantly British affair until the growth of Japan 's involvement in the late 1930s. The international character of
25560-536: The ship was sunk after the Japanese opened fire at almost point-blank range. The French troops did not move from the preserved French Concession, as the French Vichy government considered itself neutral. European residents of the International Settlement were forced to wear armbands to differentiate them, were evicted from their homes, and—just like Chinese citizens—were liable to maltreatment. All were liable for punitive punishments, torture and even death during
25740-471: The silver standard after the rest of the world had changed over to the gold standard. When China began producing official Republican yuan coins in 1934, they were minted in Shanghai and shipped to Nanking for distribution. Shanghai had developed a postal service as early as the Ming dynasty , but during the treaty port era foreign postal services were organised through their respective consulates. For example,
25920-700: The sovereign grantor, the Chinese Government. Although under the control of the Consular Council, the area is still Chinese territory, over which China's sovereignty remains unsurrendered". In the 19th century, Europeans possessed treaty ports in Japan in the same way they held those in China. However, Japan rapidly developed into a modern nation, and by the turn of the 20th century the Japanese had successfully negotiated with all powers to abrogate all unequal treaties with it. Japan stood alongside
26100-637: The story has been positive, with various commentators considering it to be one of Hergé's finest works. Staying at the palace of the Maharaja of Gaipajama in India , Tintin is approached by a visitor from Shanghai in China . The visitor supplies him with the name of Mitsuhirato , a Japanese businessman based in Shanghai while on secondment, but before finishing his message is hit by a dart dipped in Rajaijah,
26280-503: The story", which was to counter widespread racist attitudes toward East Asians among Belgians. Due to the inclusion of actual historical events, he thought that the comic lacked the "timelessness" of other Adventures but that for 1934 it was "a marvelous piece of comic strip art". Hergé biographer Pierre Assouline thought that the book combined "social realism" with the spirit present in the work of Charles Dickens and Alexandre Dumas . Hergé biographer Benoît Peeters thought that there
26460-409: The supplement, Hergé illustrated L'extraordinaire aventure de Flup, Nénesse, Poussette et Cochonnet ( The Extraordinary Adventure of Flup, Nénesse, Poussette and Cochonnet ), a comic strip authored by a member of the newspaper's sport staff. Dissatisfied with this, Hergé wanted to write and draw his own cartoon strip. He already had experience creating comic strips. From July 1926, he had written
26640-485: The terms of unequal treaties agreed by both parties. These treaties were abrogated in 1943. The British settlements were established following the victory of the British in the First Opium War (1839–1842). Under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking , the five treaty ports including Shanghai were opened to foreign merchants, overturning the monopoly then held by the southern port of Canton ( Guangzhou ) under
26820-460: The three countries created the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC) to serve all their interests, but, in 1862, the French concession dropped out of the arrangement. The following year the British and American settlements formally united to create the Shanghai International Settlement. As more foreign powers entered into treaty relations with China, their nationals also became part of the administration of
27000-432: The type of space suit that would be used in future Moon exploration , although his portrayal of the type of rocket that was actually used was a long way off the mark". The Moon rocket is based on the German V-2 rockets. In his youth, Hergé admired Benjamin Rabier and suggested that a number of images within Tintin in the Land of the Soviets reflected his influence, particularly the pictures of animals. René Vincent ,
27180-402: The weekly British children's comic Eagle in 1951 with the story King Ottokar's Sceptre . It was translated in conjunction with Casterman , Tintin's publishers, and starts by describing Tintin as "a French boy". Snowy was called by his French name Milou . The process of translating Tintin into British English was then commissioned in 1958 by Methuen , Hergé's British publishers. It
27360-568: The world of the Good". He saw a similarity between Didi and Tintin, who both have "feline suppleness, a devotion to good causes, and the patience of an animal stalking its prey". He furthermore argued that Didi's desire to behead people when under the poison's influence expressed his Oedipus complex and was a substitute for castration . The Blue Lotus was adapted into a 1991 episode of The Adventures of Tintin television series by French studio Ellipse and Canadian animation company Nelvana . Directed by Stéphane Bernasconi, Thierry Wermuth voiced
27540-538: The world. From 1966 to 1979, Children's Digest included monthly instalments of The Adventures of Tintin . These serialisations served to increase Tintin's popularity, introducing him to many thousands of new readers in the United States. Atlantic Monthly Press , in cooperation with Little, Brown and Company beginning in the 1970s, republished the albums based on the British translations. Alterations were made to vocabulary not well known to an American audience (such as gaol , tyre , saloon , and spanner ). As of
27720-510: The wrong character. The detectives usually wear bowler hats and carry walking sticks except when sent abroad; during those missions they attempt the national costume of the locality they are visiting, but instead dress in conspicuously stereotypical folkloric attire which makes them stand apart. The detectives were based partly on Hergé's father Alexis and uncle Léon, identical twins who often took walks together, wearing matching bowler hats while carrying matching walking sticks. Bianca Castafiore
27900-449: Was 'It's much too good for children!' ... I was far from expecting that". He sent a copy to Zhang, who replied to thank him. After news of its publication reached China, in 1939 political leader Chiang Kai-shek , who had enjoyed The Blue Lotus , asked his wife Soong Mei-ling to invite Hergé to visit them there, although he was unable to do so due to the impending Second World War . He finally took up her offer in 1973, visiting her on
28080-430: Was a joint operation, headed by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner, who worked closely with Hergé to attain a translation as true as possible to the original work. Due in part to the large amount of language-specific word play (such as punning) in the series, especially the jokes which played on Professor Calculus ' partial deafness, it was never the intention to translate literally; instead they strove to fashion
28260-400: Was actually changed for the 1946 edition, although many of the backgrounds were embellished. Minor alterations included replacing three highland Scotsmen who briefly featured in the story with three Sikhs. The map that appears on the opening page was made smaller, while a reference to Sir Malcolm Campbell was removed. The European Palace Hotel was renamed The Continental, while Gibbons' company
28440-497: Was also included twice throughout the comic, reflecting his artistic contribution; Hergé wanted to include Zhang's name as co-author before Zhang declined, which did not happen previously and subsequently in the other books. In gratitude, Hergé created the character of Chang in honour of his friend Zhang. Upon realising the anti-Japanese tone of the story, Japan's diplomats stationed in Belgium issued an official complaint, conveyed to Hergé by Lieutenant-General Raoul Pontus, president of
28620-414: Was also renamed from the Americano-Anglo Chinese Stell [ sic ] Company Limited to American and Chinese Steel Incorporated, and the drug smuggling ship known as the S.S. City of Doodlecastle was renamed the S.S. Harika Maru . Both Rastapopoulos and Dawson reappeared in the series 20 years later in The Red Sea Sharks . Casterman republished the original black-and-white version in 1979 in
28800-420: Was also the man assumed to have fallen to his death during the foiled kidnapping of the Maharaja's son. However, in accordance with Tintin's plan, Chang and the Sons of the Dragon rescue Tintin and Fang; Rastapopoulos is arrested while Mitsuhirato commits seppuku . Tintin's report on Mitsuhirato's activities leads to accusations against Japan , which withdraws from the League of Nations in protest. Fang develops
28980-438: Was an Adventure set in Egypt, Arabia, and India that Hergé later titled Cigars of the Pharaoh . Cigars ceased publication in Le Petit Vingtième in February 1934, and Hergé next provided the standalone story Popol out West for the newspaper. The Blue Lotus was the second half of the Tintin in the Orient story that Hergé had begun with Cigars of the Pharaoh . However, Hergé knew as little about China as he did about
29160-585: Was an obvious difference in The Adventures of Tintin before and after The Blue Lotus , and that it represented "an essential turning point both graphically and ideologically" as Hergé shifted from his former "classically right-wing" ideas. Also feeling that the work was "exceptionally moving," he noted that The Blue Lotus was far from Tintin in the Congo in its attitude to non-Europeans, while other Belgian comic strips like Blake and Mortimer and Buck Danny would continue to perpetuate negative stereotypes of East Asians for decades. Elsewhere, he stated that it
29340-405: Was auctioned on January 14, 2021, and proceeds were "more than three million euros ". The Blue Lotus is widely regarded as one of the best Tintin adventures. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier commented that The Blue Lotus was "unarguably Hergé's first masterpiece". They felt that for the first time in the series, "one senses that the story has become important" as Tintin first expresses "a purpose,
29520-415: Was considered a self-imposed exile, he ultimately decided to return to his occupied homeland. For political reasons, the Nazi authorities closed down Le Vingtième Siècle , leaving Hergé unemployed. In search of employment, he got a job as an illustrator at Belgium's leading newspaper, Le Soir ( The Evening ), which was allowed to continue publication under German management. On 17 October 1940, he
29700-472: Was discovered at Studio Hergé, and was subsequently exhibited as the centrepiece of an exhibit commemorating the 60th anniversary of The Adventures of Tintin . The first draft of the cover to The Blue Lotus was given by Hergé in 1936 to Jean-Paul Casterman, the son of Louis Casterman, Hergé’s editor. Jean-Paul Casterman folded the drawing and put in a drawer. It stayed in the drawer until 1981, when Jean-Paul Casterman retrieved it and asked Hergé to sign it. It
29880-416: Was excited by Hergé's latest venture, commenting that it could contribute to "a work of inter-racial understanding and true friendship between Orientals and whites". He sent him two books, Father Thadée's Aux origines du conflict mandchou ( On the Origins of the Manchu Conflict ) and Zheng Zheng's Ma Mère ( My Mother ), a first-hand account of Chinese family life. He also sent Hergé a 1932 article discussing
30060-412: Was formalized in 1845 with the delimitation of a segregated area north of Yangjingbang, a creek that ran north of the Chinese city. Later that year Gong Muiju and Balfour concluded an agreement called the Land Regulations ( Shanghai zudi zhangcheng ), which set forth the institutional basis for the British settlement. In 1848, with the permission of the Daotai, the 138-acre British settlement – a fraction of
30240-524: Was heavily influenced by his close friend Zhang Chongren , a Chinese student studying in Belgium, and the work both satirises common European misconceptions about China as well as criticising the actions of the Japanese invaders. The Blue Lotus was a commercial success in Belgium and was soon serialised in France and Switzerland, while news of the book led to the Chinese political leader Chiang Kai-shek inviting Hergé to visit China itself. Hergé continued The Adventures of Tintin with The Broken Ear , while
30420-492: Was increased to five. The International Settlement was wholly foreign-controlled, with staff of all nationalities, including British , Americans, Danes , Dutch , French , Spanish , Portuguese , Italians and Germans . In reality, the British held the largest number of seats on the council and headed all the Municipal departments (British included Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians , Newfoundlanders , and South Africans whose extraterritorial rights were established by
30600-489: Was instigated by publisher Casterman and Hergé's estate managers Moulinsart , who decided to replace localised hand-lettering with a single computerised font for all Tintin titles worldwide. On 1 June 2006, the Dalai Lama bestowed the International Campaign for Tibet 's Light of Truth Award upon the Hergé Foundation, along with South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu . The award was in recognition of Hergé's book Tintin in Tibet , Hergé's most personal adventure, which
30780-432: Was known as Little Tokyo . In 1931, supposed "protection of Japanese colonists from Chinese aggression" in Hongkew was used as a pretext for the Shanghai Incident , when Japanese troops invaded Shanghai. From then until the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) Hongkew was almost entirely outside of the SMC's hands, with law and protection enforced to varying degrees by the Japanese Consular Police and Japanese members of
30960-433: Was known for her "shrill" singing of opera), and, in the post-war comics, on Maria Callas . Other recurring characters include Nestor the butler, Chang (or Chang-Chong-Chen) the loyal Chinese boy, Rastapopoulos the criminal mastermind, Jolyon Wagg the infuriating (to Haddock) insurance salesman, General Alcazar the South American freedom fighter and (on and off) President of San Theodoros, Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab
31140-441: Was made editor of the children's supplement, Le Soir Jeunesse , in which he set about producing new Tintin adventures. In this new, more repressive political climate of German-occupied Belgium , Hergé could no longer politicize The Adventures of Tintin lest he be arrested by the Gestapo . As Harry Thompson noted, Tintin's role as a reporter came to an end, to be replaced by his new role as an explorer. In September 1944,
31320-412: Was not a word about separate residential areas for foreigners on Chinese soil. However, the imperial commissioner who negotiated the supplementary treaty reported to the Qing emperor that by signing the treaty he had successfully arranged that in the treaty ports "the boundaries of an area should be designated which foreigners are not allowed to exceed" ( yiding jiezhi, buxu yuyue ), an intent however that
31500-435: Was not clearly stated in the English-language version of the treaty. The Qing rulers, by intending to confine the "barbarians" to an officially designated special zone, apparently hoped to resurrect the old Canton system , that is, a system that strictly confined foreigners to a segregated zone. At Shanghai, the intention of the imperial officials had clearly been initially to keep the foreigners out and upon his arrival in 1843,
31680-445: Was partly due to the influence of Zhang, who had destroyed Hergé's "European absolutism", and overall thought of it as "the most visually rich of all the Tintin books". Literary critic Jean-Marie Apostolidès of Stanford University thought that Wang signified the forces of good in the story while Rastapopoulos represented evil, and that the character Didi – who was poisoned with Raijaijah – inverted "the model of justice ruling
31860-413: Was renamed Marlinspike Hall. When it came time to translate The Black Island , which is set in Great Britain , the opportunity was taken to redraw the entire book. Methuen had decided that the book did not portray Great Britain accurately enough and had compiled a list of 131 errors of detail which needed to be put right, such as ensuring that the British police were unarmed and ensuring that scenes of
32040-457: Was run by the Abbé Norbert Wallez . In 1929, Hergé began The Adventures of Tintin comic strip for Le Petit Vingtième , about the exploits of fictional young Belgian reporter Tintin . Wallez ordered Hergé to set his first adventure in the Soviet Union to act as anti-socialist propaganda for children ( Tintin in the Land of the Soviets ), to set his second adventure in the Belgian Congo to encourage colonial sentiment ( Tintin in
32220-417: Was the first Adventure where Hergé "really took control" of the story, also opining that it was the "most politically involved" entity in the series. Michael Farr stated that there was a "general agreement" that The Blue Lotus was Hergé's first masterpiece, being "better planned" than its predecessors and for the first time having "a carefully devised structure". At the same time he thought that it retained
32400-428: Was undertaken by Michael Turner and Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, although it lost the English accent of the British troops which was conveyed in the original French. The Adventures of Tintin also became popular in Japan, something Michael Farr thought indicated that the Japanese had not taken offence to Hergé's portrayal of them in The Blue Lotus . After Hergé's death, the original illustrated manuscript of The Blue Lotus
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